Evaluating Aid for Trade : A Survey of Recent Studies
The demand for accountability in aid-for-trade is increasing but monitoring has focused on case studies and impressionistic narratives. The paper reviews recent evidence from a wide range of studies, recognizing that a multiplicity of approaches is...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/01/18769480/evaluating-aid-trade-survey-recent-studies http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16809 |
| Summary: | The demand for accountability in
aid-for-trade is increasing but monitoring has focused on
case studies and impressionistic narratives. The paper
reviews recent evidence from a wide range of studies,
recognizing that a multiplicity of approaches is needed to
learn what works and what does not. The review concludes
that there is some support for the emphasis on reducing
trade costs through investments in hard infrastructure (like
ports and roads) and soft infrastructure (like customs). But
failure to implement complementary reform -- especially the
introduction of competition in transport services -- may
erode the benefits of these investments. Direct support to
exporters does seem to lead to diversification across
products and destinations, but it is not yet clear that
these benefits are durable. In general, it is difficult to
rely on cross-country studies to direct aid-for-trade. More
rigorous impact evaluation is an underutilized alternative,
but situations of clinical interventions in trade are rare
and adverse incentives (because of agency problems) and
costs (because of the small size of project) are a hurdle in implementation. |
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